Hyd - Konaseema, Ride Log - Day 1, 9th October, 2008
00515; 0655 hrs, get out of the boundaries of home and Alwal, with barely 3-4 hours of sleep in me (was tossing and turning thanks to a bad ear ache) after a steel tumbler of Filter coffee, headed out for Uppal and thereafter the Warangal highway. The relatively late departure means I have to deal with lots of traffic, and even as I negotiate the same, I wonder and wonder, why is that so many cars are white? Nice early morning ride all the same, the Warangal highway's picturesque as usual and its fun to be on the road again :-)
00622; 0845 hrs, reach Jangaon and turn right and stop at a Grocery store to buy batteries, mineral water, pen and a small red coloured Liberty Note Book. The last-mentioned for keeping the ride log. Note in passing that almost everyone at the shop is buying Coconuts (it's Vijaya Dasami) and wonder if I should stop somewhere on the way and get the Ayudha Puja done. The traffic's now luckily behind me and the roads are excellent, so I decide not to dither and put some distance between me and the mundanities of urban living. Luckily enough this is a lovely stretch and for something like 50 odd kms I get to see no white Indicas or Marutis and just one Bus and one Truck (yes, I counted!)
00668;0945 hrs, turn left at Tirmalgiri, onto a narrow, oh so narrow road, noting in passing that there's a hillock in the town / village, something that for all purposes looks like one single, (and very, very solemn) big and weathered-smooth boulder. Also see that almost every Wine shop that I have passed is already open and doing brisk business!! After all, today is Dasami and all along this road, almost every temple and notable shrine would soon be the setting for sacrifices of sheep and goats, community feasts and of course gluggings of Brandy, Rum, Whisky and all other things fiery :-)
00678;0955 hrs, the roads are lovely and Peepal verged, there is no traffic worth the mention but my stomach's grumbling for something; so stop at a wayside shack that has only two tables (with two swarthy and stubbled gents in lungis at them) and look forward to stuffing myself full of the Idlis on display. Sadly however, by the time I am back from a trip behind the bushes, the Idlis are all over, so I settle for a Chhai and start off again, getting a bit bothered by the heat, riding on, as the road narrows onto Thorur.
00699;1035 hrs, reach Thorur and turn right onto the road to Khammam. A sea change it is, after the narrow roads so far, this one is a broad double carriageway, though thankfully not boringly four or eight or twelve laned and surprise, surprise, also devoid of traffic! Who needs National Highways with roads like these? The villages on this stretch have been nameplated in radium lettering and I note the quaint names in passing, Marri Thanda, Laxman Thanda, Beerlagudem and so on. I have been pressing on a bit, to make up for the late departure (I also did not know how far it was to Ravulapalem, my destined halt for the day) but then I am like, time to do some photography, so stop below a Banyan and cool off with some water and get down to some point and shoot digital photography.
00756, hit reserve, ride upto and through Khammam (00778;1150 hrs), 00790, INR 400 worth petrol goes into the Bullet somewhere near Wyra (there is a huge lake here) and after verifying that I am on the right road and asking for the distance to Jangareddygudem, I ride out slowly hoping that I will get to see a bodaciously full lake from the saddle. The roads are still nice and open, but its getting hotter and hotter and I am now getting cooked well and fine in the jacket, so cut out the stops and ride at a fair clip to make my own breeze, through other quaintly named villages like Golla Gudem and Hanuman Thanda. Golla in Telugu means shepherd and fittingly enough when I pass the village, the road is splattered with freshly dropped Cowdung! Stick to the road without giving in to the temptation of being a lensman and while passing through another village come across a roundabout from where Kinnerasani is 61 kms straight. But then, I had to turn right and go with the road to Ashwaropeta to keep my date with Konaseema!
00891;1335 hrs, finally decide to stop for a bite, lunch is four Rotis and a Dal Fry (was more like boiled Dal) that had no salt. I holler for the salt, am given a salt jar without a spoon, so stir in the salt I had added to the Dal with a Green Chilli and then use it to spice up things a bit :-) Nice food, lack of salt and chilli notwithstanding, and just INR 22! I am off again and its 1405 hrs now. The road's a bit bad hereon, and broken surfaced and there are bumps too, all of which are not very easy to spot with a sun high overhead and almost no shadows to help. Also, I am slowed down by a strong feeling of "been here done this" though I don't remember having ridden on this road, did I ride on this stretch back when the four laning of NH-9 was going on? Pass through Kollur and Jangareddygudem while stopping here and there to and take some more point and shoot photographs and cool off with water and then I am at the bridge over the Godavari that leads to Rajahamundry, ask for the way to Ravulapalem and am directed to go left along the banks of the river who's delta has drawn me here. And then I know, yeah, I have been on this road before...
01000; 1600 hrs, Kovvuru..I distinctly remember this broken stretch of roads with green, oh so green Rice fields on one side and a blue river on the other from having been here more than 4 years back, so slow down and then as the odo hits the thousand mark, find a way to get to the river's bank and I am at Kovvuru, from where the Godavari's fine grained sand makes it all across the state. Ride as close to the Godavari as I can to be greeted by a nice river breeze and to see the flat bottomed sand barges and river launches lined up along the bank, and sand hitched by their anchors :-) While I am drinking in the sights and doing some serious photography, a group of kids get down to playing cricket with Lantana twigs for wickets. I wonder what happens when the tennis ball evades the wicketkeeper and goes into the Godavari, but maybe these kids are already used to swimming across the Godavari with no worries and a cricket bat in hand! 10 more minutes of musing on this and that and I am off again.
Parallel to the bridge that crosses the Godavari and a bit downriver, there is a famous Barrage (with three bridges / sets of sluice gates) built around 150 years ago by Arthur Cotton and named after him. I have ridden on this stretch before (you go over the bridges when you want to bypass Rajahmundry) and it so happens that to get to Ravulapalem, I need to go right from the second set of sluice gates. So I cross two bridges and decide to wander out of my way and ride across the third one too, intent on being a kid all over again and enjoying the sight of cascasding waters. By now the everning sun is getting shuttered by clouds and the sights are just right to be lensed, so I park the Don on its footrest and click and click and click and click. One can never have enough of photographing vistas such as these but then the Camera ran out of juice, so it was time to head back to Ravulapalem. The stretch to Ravulapalem is out of some paradise that travel writers have probably not bothered to write about (or probably they were out of log books and pens) and is green as far as the eye can see on one side with Sugarcane, Rice, Pappaya and Coconuts and flanked by a canal on the other. Hold it, throttle down, there's far more, the road itself is canopied all through and the far side of the canal (as with most canals in this region) lined with Coconut Palm after Coconut Palm after Coconut Palm. Riding slowly and marvelling at the reflections of the Coconuts (and sunset streaked skies) in the canals, I finally reach Ravulapalem (01047;1730 hrs) which happens to be on the National Highway No.5 and get down to hunting for a lodge to overnight at. Decide on Sowbhagya Lodge (its just besides an ATM), unload the Cramsters, get a wash and wander around a bit (on the highway and other roads), call home, and yes, also find a temple and pay my respects to Goddess Durga.
That brings to close Day 1, around 530 kms on the odo and almost all the day in the saddle. Tomorrow, it's a date with Konaseema.
00622; 0845 hrs, reach Jangaon and turn right and stop at a Grocery store to buy batteries, mineral water, pen and a small red coloured Liberty Note Book. The last-mentioned for keeping the ride log. Note in passing that almost everyone at the shop is buying Coconuts (it's Vijaya Dasami) and wonder if I should stop somewhere on the way and get the Ayudha Puja done. The traffic's now luckily behind me and the roads are excellent, so I decide not to dither and put some distance between me and the mundanities of urban living. Luckily enough this is a lovely stretch and for something like 50 odd kms I get to see no white Indicas or Marutis and just one Bus and one Truck (yes, I counted!)
00668;0945 hrs, turn left at Tirmalgiri, onto a narrow, oh so narrow road, noting in passing that there's a hillock in the town / village, something that for all purposes looks like one single, (and very, very solemn) big and weathered-smooth boulder. Also see that almost every Wine shop that I have passed is already open and doing brisk business!! After all, today is Dasami and all along this road, almost every temple and notable shrine would soon be the setting for sacrifices of sheep and goats, community feasts and of course gluggings of Brandy, Rum, Whisky and all other things fiery :-)
00678;0955 hrs, the roads are lovely and Peepal verged, there is no traffic worth the mention but my stomach's grumbling for something; so stop at a wayside shack that has only two tables (with two swarthy and stubbled gents in lungis at them) and look forward to stuffing myself full of the Idlis on display. Sadly however, by the time I am back from a trip behind the bushes, the Idlis are all over, so I settle for a Chhai and start off again, getting a bit bothered by the heat, riding on, as the road narrows onto Thorur.
00699;1035 hrs, reach Thorur and turn right onto the road to Khammam. A sea change it is, after the narrow roads so far, this one is a broad double carriageway, though thankfully not boringly four or eight or twelve laned and surprise, surprise, also devoid of traffic! Who needs National Highways with roads like these? The villages on this stretch have been nameplated in radium lettering and I note the quaint names in passing, Marri Thanda, Laxman Thanda, Beerlagudem and so on. I have been pressing on a bit, to make up for the late departure (I also did not know how far it was to Ravulapalem, my destined halt for the day) but then I am like, time to do some photography, so stop below a Banyan and cool off with some water and get down to some point and shoot digital photography.
00756, hit reserve, ride upto and through Khammam (00778;1150 hrs), 00790, INR 400 worth petrol goes into the Bullet somewhere near Wyra (there is a huge lake here) and after verifying that I am on the right road and asking for the distance to Jangareddygudem, I ride out slowly hoping that I will get to see a bodaciously full lake from the saddle. The roads are still nice and open, but its getting hotter and hotter and I am now getting cooked well and fine in the jacket, so cut out the stops and ride at a fair clip to make my own breeze, through other quaintly named villages like Golla Gudem and Hanuman Thanda. Golla in Telugu means shepherd and fittingly enough when I pass the village, the road is splattered with freshly dropped Cowdung! Stick to the road without giving in to the temptation of being a lensman and while passing through another village come across a roundabout from where Kinnerasani is 61 kms straight. But then, I had to turn right and go with the road to Ashwaropeta to keep my date with Konaseema!
00891;1335 hrs, finally decide to stop for a bite, lunch is four Rotis and a Dal Fry (was more like boiled Dal) that had no salt. I holler for the salt, am given a salt jar without a spoon, so stir in the salt I had added to the Dal with a Green Chilli and then use it to spice up things a bit :-) Nice food, lack of salt and chilli notwithstanding, and just INR 22! I am off again and its 1405 hrs now. The road's a bit bad hereon, and broken surfaced and there are bumps too, all of which are not very easy to spot with a sun high overhead and almost no shadows to help. Also, I am slowed down by a strong feeling of "been here done this" though I don't remember having ridden on this road, did I ride on this stretch back when the four laning of NH-9 was going on? Pass through Kollur and Jangareddygudem while stopping here and there to and take some more point and shoot photographs and cool off with water and then I am at the bridge over the Godavari that leads to Rajahamundry, ask for the way to Ravulapalem and am directed to go left along the banks of the river who's delta has drawn me here. And then I know, yeah, I have been on this road before...
01000; 1600 hrs, Kovvuru..I distinctly remember this broken stretch of roads with green, oh so green Rice fields on one side and a blue river on the other from having been here more than 4 years back, so slow down and then as the odo hits the thousand mark, find a way to get to the river's bank and I am at Kovvuru, from where the Godavari's fine grained sand makes it all across the state. Ride as close to the Godavari as I can to be greeted by a nice river breeze and to see the flat bottomed sand barges and river launches lined up along the bank, and sand hitched by their anchors :-) While I am drinking in the sights and doing some serious photography, a group of kids get down to playing cricket with Lantana twigs for wickets. I wonder what happens when the tennis ball evades the wicketkeeper and goes into the Godavari, but maybe these kids are already used to swimming across the Godavari with no worries and a cricket bat in hand! 10 more minutes of musing on this and that and I am off again.
Parallel to the bridge that crosses the Godavari and a bit downriver, there is a famous Barrage (with three bridges / sets of sluice gates) built around 150 years ago by Arthur Cotton and named after him. I have ridden on this stretch before (you go over the bridges when you want to bypass Rajahmundry) and it so happens that to get to Ravulapalem, I need to go right from the second set of sluice gates. So I cross two bridges and decide to wander out of my way and ride across the third one too, intent on being a kid all over again and enjoying the sight of cascasding waters. By now the everning sun is getting shuttered by clouds and the sights are just right to be lensed, so I park the Don on its footrest and click and click and click and click. One can never have enough of photographing vistas such as these but then the Camera ran out of juice, so it was time to head back to Ravulapalem. The stretch to Ravulapalem is out of some paradise that travel writers have probably not bothered to write about (or probably they were out of log books and pens) and is green as far as the eye can see on one side with Sugarcane, Rice, Pappaya and Coconuts and flanked by a canal on the other. Hold it, throttle down, there's far more, the road itself is canopied all through and the far side of the canal (as with most canals in this region) lined with Coconut Palm after Coconut Palm after Coconut Palm. Riding slowly and marvelling at the reflections of the Coconuts (and sunset streaked skies) in the canals, I finally reach Ravulapalem (01047;1730 hrs) which happens to be on the National Highway No.5 and get down to hunting for a lodge to overnight at. Decide on Sowbhagya Lodge (its just besides an ATM), unload the Cramsters, get a wash and wander around a bit (on the highway and other roads), call home, and yes, also find a temple and pay my respects to Goddess Durga.
That brings to close Day 1, around 530 kms on the odo and almost all the day in the saddle. Tomorrow, it's a date with Konaseema.
posted by Anand Vishwanadha at 4:48 AM
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